Anonymity and self-disclosure on MySpace

This thesis investigated the role of anonymity and the amount of self-disclosure revealed on the social-networking website MySpace. Anonymity and self-disclosure were examined within MySpace to update previous computer-mediated communication research before Web 2.0 technology. This study content-analyzed MySpace website profiles that contained anonymous profile usernames (n=200) and identified profile usernames (n=200) to evaluate the amount of self-disclosure between the two. An analysis of the profiles (N=400) showed that more personal information was disclosed when MySpace profiles maintained an anonymous username. This study confirmed that self-disclosure levels increased when the participant's username remained anonymous and supports previous computer-mediated communications research on anonymity and self-disclosure within chat-rooms and blogs.